Explanation:
Have you ever seen an aurora?
Aurorae are occurring again with increasing frequency.
With the Sun being
unusually dormant over the past four years, the amount of Sun-induced aurorae has been unusually low.
More recently, however,
our Sun has become increasingly active and
exhibiting a greater abundance of
sunspots,
flares, and
coronal mass ejections.
Solar activity
like this
typically expels charged particles into the Solar System, some of which may trigger
Earthly aurorae.
Two weeks ago, beyond trees and before stars, a solar storm precipitated the
above timelapse displays
of picturesque aurorae above Ravnastua, Skoganvarre and
Lakselv,
Norway.
Curtains of auroral light, typically green,
flow,
shimmer and
dance as
energetic particles fall toward the Earth and
excite
air molecules high up in the Earth's atmosphere.
With solar maximum still in the future, there may be even better opportunities to see spectacular
aurorae personally over the next few years.